Porous metal-organic frameworks are known in the prior art and form an interesting class of substances which can be an alternative to zeolites for various applications.
Numerous processes have been developed for preparing such porous metal-organic frameworks. Typically, a metal salt is reacted with the at least bidentate organic compound, for example a dicarboxylic acid, in a suitable solvent under superatmospheric pressure and at elevated temperature.
These preparative processes frequently do not provide a basis for the production of relatively large amounts.
Preparative processes of this type are also known for the zinc 2-methylimidazolate known in the prior art as metal-organic framework.
WO 2007/131955 A1 describes, for example, the electrochemical preparation of this framework. Here, zinc is made available to the reaction space by anodic oxidation. Despite the very good yields, this process is expensive and has only limited suitability for industrial production.
J. Cravillon et al., Chem. Mater. 21 (2009), 1410-1412, describe the preparation of the framework in only moderate yields in methanol and N,N-dimethylformamide (supporting information).
X.-C. Huang et al., Angew. Chem. 118 (2006), 1587-1589, describe the preparation of the framework, which is concluded only after one month and gives moderate yields.
Despite the preparative processes known in the prior art, there is a need for new processes in which the disadvantages of the prior art are at least partly overcome and, in particular, allow preparation of the framework in relatively large amounts, in particular in very good absolute yields (based on a starting material) and yields on a time basis (space-time yield).